International winter swimming festival taking place in Pirita on Saturday
The ice swimming festival called Pirita Open to take place in Pirita Olympic Sailing Center in Tallinn on February 28.
The winter swimming event will see an outdoor pool to be located on the dockside of river Pirita, near Pirita SPA Hotel and Yacht Club.
25m breaststroke, 50m freestyle, endurance swim of 450m, marathon swim and dipping in an ice-hole are all featured.
In Estonia, as well as in Finland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia, the ice swimming has usually been connected to sauna tradition. But the ice swimming on its own is especially popular in Estonia and Finland.
Estonian Henri Kaarma recently broke the world record for the 1 km distance in ice swimming, at the competition in Northern Ireland.
Editor: S. Tambur